Budget Direct Annual Multi-Trip Travel Insurance

Poor online experience left me unisured – I booked annual multi-trip travel insurance online but during the process it did not prompt me to select Worldwide or make it obvious that that is what I should do. I also didn't know where else I would be traveling. I have just called to ensure that the cover covered me for more than just my first destination and was informed that it didn't. I… Read more

asked how much it would cost to add more destinations and the quote is higher than what is being offered online. The website is deceptive and will leave people un-insured do to lack of visibility.

SERVICE ABOVE AND BEYOND – Lets face it, you only worry about insurance when, YOU NEED TO CLAIM!!, so Covid 19 cancelations from May 2020 and certian airlines that I wont name kept changing their claiming requirements. BD claims were so helpful in giving me prompts as to what I needed to submit to them, in the end I handed over control to them as the airlines were just… Read more ·  1

dragging their feet for no reason. and yes 3 years later all claims closed and reimbursed. thanks so much for all the help you have provided. Andy - Sydney NSW

Lied and Refused to Pay – I am an Army member who was serving in Africa. I spoke to them before I left (Jan 2020) for a multi trip cover while deployed on operations in South Sudan. I explained I would be deployed for 12 months and all travel would start and end in South Sudan - “all good Sir, we will cover that” they said. When COVID-19 hit I was unable to travel and had… Read more

already spent 10’s of thousands on a family holiday. When I submitted my claim they refused to pay, not due to a pandemic (that was covered), but they said I did not meet the criteria as I had been out of Australia for more than 30 days. They said they could not find the recording of them agreeing to cover me and they would never agree to that anyway; and if they did, that person was not authorised to agree to that anyway. I appealed multiple times and got the usual stock standard email reply of “initial decision stands”. Just hopeless and misleading. If you do go with them, record date and time of conversation and get the persons name. I am now out of pockets for well over $10000 and the over $400 for the insurance itself. Head this warning and I hope this helps.

If I could give 0 I would – We regularly take multiple overseas trips and selected Budget Direct for our insurance. When COVID struck, we had several trips cancelled. Would BD pay out - would they heck. They expected us to take credits for things that who knew if we could even use a year in the future. Abysmal service and the length of time it took to respond was… Read more

atrocious. I would NEVER EVER EVER use them again. Stay away from this dodgy company. They'll happily take your money, but when you actually have the right to a refund, they'll try everything in the book they can to stop it from happening!

Appalling and Immoral - I am disgusted with how the company has treated me looks like many others are in the same boat – I purchased an expensive comprehensive multi trip travel insurance policy with Budget Direct in august 2019 (a long time before COVID. I rang for advise as to how to handle my tickets after the boarders closed and they simply said cancel and lodge a claim which I did for cancellation charges incurred . The gall of these people is despicable. They… Read more

deliberately delay the process by sending multiple requests for "Further information" weeks apart, rather than asking for all the information at once. Also, they keep asking for the same information I have already provided, again weeks after it was already provided. I have been waiting 4 months now and now just told the claim has been denied where the explanation has no relation to my claim, literally 6 to 8 different people have been working on the claim. Getting absolutely nowhere; clearly their tactic is to keep delaying and avoiding until customers give up. The behavior is absolutely abhorrent and I have no idea how these employees and managers sleep at night. I am out thousands of dollars plus hours of my time, and yet I will not give up because they need to be held to account. And like the other comments for god's sake, budget direct, don't you dare leave a comment saying you "Are sorry to hear about my experience and can understand my frustration". You should be utterly ashamed for earning a living defrauding people, and I hope you are held accountable for what you're doing to people. If my complaint of my denial is upheld I’ll be going to the ombudsman and request the conversations be reviewed. Be very careful- there’s no good having insurance if you can’t claim or they make it so difficult you just give up.

Avoid at all costs – Over 180 days in and still trying to resolve a travel insurance claim with Budget Direct. Checked with Budget Direct by telephone we were covered for COVID related cancellations in March. Submitted a claim when airline cancelled our flights due to pandemic but this was denied as COVID was a "known event" in January. Raises questions why they… Read more

continued to sell travel insurance through March. After over 3 months chasing them up for responses and quoting their own emails back to them they finally accepted they would provide cover.

At this point, they advised us of additional documentation that were now required as STA Travel had gone into administration since our claim was commenced. After a further month chasing travel providers, banks, etc. to collect these documents they denied the claim as STA Travel had gone into administration and was therefore not covered. They were obviously aware of this position before they requested all the additional documents. This inconsistency is absolutely reflective of the Budget Direct claim process. The only thing to be said in their favour is it appears to be general incompetence and process failures rather than deliberate malice.

Worst company I have ever dealt with - DO NOT USE – 4w holiday to Europe, obviously due to covid could not go and would not process our claim. Strange when all policies before 5th of may had stated you would be covered for epidemics and now they are saying everyone was aware. If everyone was aware of this, why were travel insurance policies being sold and why did they change their PDS for claims… Read more

after 5th May stating epidemics are not included under the insurance. Customer service was atrocious, said 5-10buisness days, waited 15 before calling as new everyone would be trying to claim. Called 3 times before I got an email saying they need more time. Then finally got a response denying claim. We appealed it and they said 15business days, we called another 3x they escalated the claim and then we still didnt hear back from them till well after the recommended period. They of course denied it on the clause 'we were aware' which how could you be aware when there was zero changes in travel restrictions.. Therefore months later our claim is still not resolved! very unhappy with this company, a hassle to contact, lied about time frames, lied about their actual PDS. I have never used this company for travel insurance and Will never use again and encourage noone else to ever use this company. Definitely the worst experience I have ever had. They can't claim they are the best on the ads if they can't even back up what they say on their statements.

Bad company poor ethics – I checked with budget direct (in writing) that I was covered before I cancelled my flights due to Covid. Come claim time they reject it on the basis I was 2 days early before 1 set of government advice even though smart traveller recommended 3 days before do not travel. They are a shifty company do not use them. Luckily Qatar airways agreed to give me a full refund otherwise I would have fought this. Don't use Budget Direct Show details

do not use budget direct Travel insurance – I had to make all the phone calls and send numerous emails for budget direct to the German debt collection agency as $1500 of bills hadn't been paid after 5 month after my accident in germany sep 2019. my carpet cleaning bill for the blood stains on my sisters carpet was not reimbursed 'as it happened in a family members home" so I am out of… Read more

pocket there for $260. one of the staff members mentioned that for sorting out their mess for them and making all these phone calls to germany for them ,they might look into reimbursing me for the carpet cleaning. NO SUCH LUCK!!!

SCAM! STAY AWAY AT ALL COST! – Booked a travel insurance with Budget Direct for a 9 months holiday trip visiting several countries since had been happy with our Budget Direct car insurance (will never that with budget direct either after this). We just wanted to be covered for medical expenses on our trip if and when we need to see a doctor. Just a week into our holiday our… Read more

1.5 years old daughter was clearly unwell and rubbing her ear. We took her to a doctor and sure enough, she had a mild ear infection. Made sure to ask all the documents and receipts from the clinic and the pharmacy for insurance.

Then the nightmare started. I tried finding a budget direct claim form for travel insurance claims. Nothing. I contacted the customer service through the chat. First person was from the car insurance and didn't know and forwarded me to the next one. She provided me with a direct link to an online form. I asked how I can I find it the next time since it's unlikely that we wouldn't need a doctor again in 9 months. She told me you can't find it. I have to store the link or contact them again. When claiming is made difficult it's never a good sign.

Then I proceeded to fill in the form. They don't have a form for travel medical expenses. It's a form when you needed to postpone or cancel a trip for medical reason and incurred expenses therefore. Thus it was very cumbersome to fill in and had a lot of not relevant fields that were compulsory. Also a medical certificate was compulsory was is obvious if you postpone or cancel a flight. I had al the documents AND receipts from the clinic and the pharmacy. But obviously I didn't ask the doctor to spend extra time to write a document just that we've been there since I had all the other documents.

Now they have declined the claim because their PDS require a medical certificate. I actually compared several insurances and read PDS thoroughly but failed to see that. It's a pure scam and the insurance is useless. I'm not going ask every doctor to waste their valuable time to write each time a document that we've been there. I've travelled 25 years and had a lot of travel insurances but never had any issues or heard anything so ridiculous. That combined with the fact that it takes about half an hour to make a claim, I will fight Budget Direct all the way to the courts if I need to, to get the policy cancelled and remaining 7 months refunded.

STAY AWAY AT ALL COST!

Poor response to reasonable request – Exactly the same issue as Serena. Paid for this to start in May and have asked if it can be deferred only option is to totally cancel and get a refund ... very eager to do that as the policy was paid for before they changed their PDS and covers multiple trips we have planned. Will be seeking legal advice. I suppose in this awful time there is an… Read more

opportunity for corporates to show their true colours and this will enable us to make choices going forward on who put customers first and who didn’t.

Well thought out and easy process – Goog all round policy easy to understand hopefully easy to claim if something goes wrong. Had all the inclusions that I need and none of the stuff that I would otherwise pay for and don't need Show details ·  1

Each time and each new place you travel you get charged extra – 12months cover. Each country in that time should not be extra. The point of an annual Multitrip policy is that you're covered anywhere in the world for that 12 months. Show details

Great price easy to set up online value for money – Good value usually do a policy per trip but this was good value easy to set up for annual trips didn't need to lodge a claim this was the first time using this company but happy with price. Show details ·  1

Very good value – We haven’t used this company before and I was pleasantly surprised at the good quote we received for this policy. I initially received assistance from an online staff member and it then took a short time to complete the application details on line. Show details ·  1

We have only just got our insurance – Our flight from Lord Howe Island was cancelled, so we were charged for extra Blue Emu parking and a motel room in Sydney, but we did not claim because it was less than $200 excess. Show details ·  1